Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tartu Eastern Beltway: How Does It Influence the Downtown?

The largest traffic project in the coming years in Tartu is possibly
the Eastern Beltway, including a long bridge over Emajõgi. This
should lead some traffic away from the overloaded streets in the inner
city. I have never seen a discussion about the potential impact of it
on the downtown and the city structure. I give a few thoughts here,
mostly from pedestrian and cyclist perspective.

*
The beltway improves the accessibility of outskirts, including
South Mall (Lõunakeskus).

The new bridge, road, and railway underpass will facilitate the access
to South Mall and other far-lying areas for the inhabitants of
Annelinn, the largest residential neighborhood in Tartu. In this way the
customer base in the outskirts may grow at the expense of the downtown.
True, it may crowd out primarily the smaller shopping centers in
Annelinn itself and the impact on downtown may be limited—it
depends on where Annelinn inhabitants currently do their shopping.
However, I can hardly see how the opposite could happen—the new
ring road improving the competitiveness of the inner city. There is one
potential case though—more customers will be attracted to the less
trafficked downtown when transit moves increasingly to the beltway.
As the accessibility of the outer areas improves substantially more
than that of downtown, I do not expect this to happen.

In the long run, better accessibility encourages businesses and
public sector institutions to locate to the outskirts. This further
increases one of the main obstacles for cycling/walking in Tartu—many important institutions are too far away and hardly accessible
without a car.

*

Cyclists not welcome here...

The new road will slightly lessen the traffic in the central areas.
However, the city will not use that opportunity by making the streets better
accessible for pedestrians/cyclists.

The previous expensive traffic project—Freedom Bridge in downtown—was intended to facilitate the traffic on the other bridges.
Unfortunately, there has been no major improvement for pedestrians in
the related area (we can rather talk about a slight worsening because
of the new street). Theoretically, part of improved accessibility
for motorists might be transformed to better conditions for other
modes of transportation as well. Almost none of it has happened in
the downtown (two-way Lai street improves access for cyclists, but
this was not the primary goal of the project). No bicycle lanes were
added when the Riia-Turu junction was reconstructed, and those along Narva
street are still hardly usable. The sidewalks along a number of much
trafficked streets (Jakobi, Kroonuaia) are still very narrow.

I do not believe anything will be different when Eastern Beltway
opens. Bicycle lanes will probably be constructed along the new road, and
with some good luck these will be largely usable. However, nothing
will be done in the more important central districts. There will
still be a minor improvement as the traffic load in downtown will
slightly fall.

*

A major boost for downtown would require fast, convenient, and
affordable mass transit lines that cross in downtown.

I can imagine two light rail lines -- one from Ihaste to where the
Institute of Physics is currently located, and another from Ülenurme
to the location of the University of Life Sciences, crossing in downtown.
If these trains are fast, frequent, and affordable, they could
potentially bring people from many areas (including Annelinn) into the
center.
I do not expect any of this to be realized in my lifetime, but
some exploratory analysis might well be worth doing.

*

Eastern Beltway is a step toward making Tartu a sprawled city where
efficient public transport is hardly feasible and distances are too
long for cycling/walking. The municipality should consider counter
moves.

6 comments:

Why do some cities care for cyclists (e.g. Copenhagen) and other cities (e.g. Tartu) do not?

Perhaps, this is a hen-egg problem: if only a few inhabitants (voters) cycle, the politicians do not care for cyclists so that the conditions for cycling stay bad and not many other inhabitants start cycling. However, if many inhabitants (voters) cycle, politicians do care for cyclists and improve the conditions for cycling so that other inhabitants start cycling. Hence, the question is in fact: how can one convince politicians to improve the conditions for cyclists even though not many people (voters) cycle?

Ott, the most likely scenario is a change in retail structure. The city centre will have to shed bulky goods and focus on providing high-value added. The Louna keskus are will expand its focus on low value per kilo products and on products that are bulky by necessity (eg furniture, possibly electronics, etc). See the developments elsewhere: Uppsala had the same kind of concerns with the development of box store retail in the outskirts (surrounding IKEA), but the inner city still is alive. Umeå, same thing.

Possibly. From the US you can easily find different examples (Syracuse, NY, where I spent some time, is one of them). Currently we have a rather little core (Central Square et surroundings) with many coffeshops, museums, but little choice in terms of shopping. This may go in either way (or stay stagnant), I don't see why should the large malls just stay with bulky goods.

I am also not so certain that I share your fears. May be the problem is that I have never had a car and can't evaluate it from the perspective of having a choice between taking a car or not. I would not go to the large hypermarkets by bike anyway, but there is always the room for smaller shops. Would'nt you consider the groceries in the city center to be overly populated anyhow now?

I am of course for the bike lines, and Tartu has a long way to go (I would start by displacing the Riia mägi :)). Especially as the campus seems to get further away from the student houses.

I think bike should be competitive up to a distance of about 2km (but I do not have any evidence). Myself, I wouldn't perhaps mind some more, but most people probably do not bother to go much longer. It also depends on for what purpose you are going, how often you have to go, etc. From downtown to the South Mall is about 5km, and however you go, the streets are simply unpleasant.